Green on the Net

A recent study shows that sustainability buzz grew 50% in 2007. The net has become a forum to discuss green tactics, raise awareness and educate, pressure companies to be environmentally responsible and monitor change in the environment. Blogging has taken off in the recent years and from it we are able to creat mini-movements via discussion and posts. With blogs and company websites we have seen a movement to go green and be environmentally conscious. The key to encouraging action is education. The web has given us a forum to educate a mass of people worldwide on this topic, usually at little to no cost and little work.

One of the biggest benefits of the web in terms of environmental issues is the ability to communicate with and pressure companies to be more responsible. Customers hold companies accountable for their actions and the results of those actions on the environment. There is now a way to offer awareness regarding which companies are being environmentally reponsible, which ones are not and what issues have arisen. This gives the consumer power to only support companies that are in fact responsible.

Some of the top search topics on the web currently are things such as: renewable energy, resource conservation, pollution and toxins. This is an uplifting piece of information that shows our society is moving in a positive direction with regards to the environment. The internet is a very powerful tool in spreading trends and ideas and this concept is one that we should hope takes off and continues with the speed it has gained thus far.

Will mobile advertising stick?

Advertisers worldwide plan to spend $4.7 billion this year in mobile display ads, but will they work? Mobile devices have become an accessory for every man, woman and child in many areas of the world, so this is an obvious outlet for advetisers to reach their markets. Will it catch the attention of those clients or will it just become an annoyance for mobile users around the world?

In terms of cell phones, text message ads are under great debate. Due to the nature of certain text message plans, many users will be charged to receive these ads, so can the message really get out without raising alarms with plan holders? The first telemarket platform seemed like a great way to reach a large number of people who all held an outlet to be marketed to. After a while however, we all started avoiding the phone during dinnertime, knowing there was a telemarketer on the other line. This then caused many consumers to act on this annoyance. "Do not call" lists were developed and the effectiveness of these marketing tactics fell drastically. It seems now there is merely a morphed version of this same platform hitting our cell phones today. So will there eventually be a "Do not text" list barring marketers from sending messages to certain phones? I think more so than with landlines because as brought up before, this time it can fall on the recipient to foot the bill.